21 JUMP STREET
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  Year Released: 2012 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 109 minutes |
Halfway through this affable, inspired grab bag of a comedy, it hit me that what I was watching wasn’t merely a good movie but rather The Greatest TV Adaptation Ever Made…
Posted on March 21, 2012 by Rick Kisonak
SILENT HOUSE
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  Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 88 minutes |
Kentis and Lau proved themselves masters of the psychological thriller with “Open Water” so it’s confounding to find them so lost at sea…
Posted on March 13, 2012 by Rick Kisonak
PROJECT X
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Year Released: 2012 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 88 minutes |
Phillips and company attempt to substitute scale for substance or invention but, by the time the riot squad has been called and flames lick the sky while the local news chopper shines its spotlight on what looks like a mini-Woodstock, the viewer isn’t shocked, as the film’s creators would like, but rather bored by the sheer nonsensical escalation of it all…
Posted on March 6, 2012 by Rick Kisonak
A SEPARATION
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  Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 123 minutes |
Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, Iran’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award-and the winner in that category-is a perfectly serviceable domestic drama featuring several fine performances but hardly the flawless feat of moviemaking virtually every American reviewer has made it out to be…
Posted on February 28, 2012 by Rick Kisonak
THIS MEANS WAR
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  Year Released: 2012 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 98 minutes |
The reward for having enough talent to make to the big leagues is more often than not big bucks and an opportunity to star in movies which have absolutely zero use for brilliance. It’s like getting recruited by the Yankees and then being paid to play tiddlywinks…
Posted on February 22, 2012 by Rick Kisonak
SAFE HOUSE
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  Year Released: 2012 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 115 minutes |
If there’s an iota of artistry or originality within a mile of this mess, fledgling writer David Guggenheim and director Daniel Espinosa, here making his Hollywood debut, succeed in keeping it top secret…
Posted on February 15, 2012 by Rick Kisonak
CHRONICLE
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  Year Released: 2012 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 83 minutes |
The idea that what we’re watching has been recorded by Andrew’s camera adds virtually nothing to the movie’s appeal. If anything, it gets in the way time and time again…
Posted on February 7, 2012 by Rick Kisonak
A DANGEROUS METHOD
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Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 99 minutes |
You know your movie’s set in Dullsville when multiple scenes featuring Fassbender spanking and whipping an appreciative Knightley do nothing to enliven the proceedings…
Posted on February 2, 2012 by Rick Kisonak
ALBERT NOBBS
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  Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 113 minutes |
There’s a deeply tragic story of self denial at the heart of “Albert Nobbs” but, unfortunately, the film’s script – adapted by Close, Gabriella Prekop and the Irish novelist John Banville – and its star’s performance fail to bring it into focus…
Posted on February 2, 2012 by Rick Kisonak
MELANCHOLIA
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  Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 136 minutes |
“Melancholia” is a stunning achievement artistically, intellectually and in terms of filmmaking craftsmanship. Its closing moments rank with the most unsettling and lovely ever put on film…
Posted on December 6, 2011 by Rick Kisonak
THE DESCENDANTS
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Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 115 minutes |
It’s a smarter-than-average soap opera with its share of dandy dialogue and fine performances but a glorified soap opera nonetheless…
Posted on November 30, 2011 by Rick Kisonak
MARGIN CALL
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Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 107 minutes |
My sense is the filmmaker could have moved the last two acts along at a brisker pace as everyone knows what happened next…
Posted on November 17, 2011 by Rick Kisonak
TOWER HEIST
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  Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 104 minutes |
The movie is most effective when Murphy is on screen tutoring his mild mannered gang in the ways of grand larceny. He doesn’t attain the sassy heights of his Axel Foley heyday but comes close enough to remind us what a force of nature he once could be…
Posted on November 16, 2011 by Rick Kisonak
THE RUM DIARY
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Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 120 minutes |
While it’s a noble and rare thing for a Hollywood star to champion great literature, Depp would probably at this point be doing his late friend a favor by getting back to swashbuckling and letting Hunter Thompson’s twisted, timeless work speak for itself…
Posted on November 1, 2011 by Rick Kisonak
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3
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Year Released: 2011 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 85 minutes |
As did its predecessors, “Paranormal Activity 3″ ultimately raises more questions than it answers…
Posted on October 25, 2011 by Rick Kisonak